Follow Me!

Alright, alright. I hear you. ;) More than a few of you have expressed that this "turn" for Abby, this focus away from her hole-heart and on to her whole-heart, is worthy of more than a name change. And so, we're moving. If you don't want to follow us over here, we'll understand. But that's where we'll be from now on. Living it up.

www.wholeheartedgirl.blogspot.com

Another reason I'm taking your advice is that there is this cool site where you can take your blog and make it into a book. They literally "slurp" it up and then you can manipulate it anyway that you want. Cool, right? I really want this first year to be it's own contained book -- it was such a hard, special and trying time. And, I can't think of a better way to have her surgery documented than with all of the comments and love contained in this blog.

So, we hope you'll "follow us!" through the tunnel...and beyond.

And here she is waving bye-bye to her Daddy.... and, now, to all of you. We love you!

Cards & Signs

Since Abby's birthday, she loves to have me set up her cards around her. Then she picks up each one. Some she kisses. Some she doesn't. Hysterical.



Here we are at Whole Foods. I barely got her in the cart before she started squawking and pointing madly at the parking sign. Every time we go in the front yard, she points at the alarm sign. We go down the street and she freaks out over the "for sale" sign. The girl loves signs. Weird!

Whole Hearted Girl

While I have tried to keep this blog about how Abby is doing in relation to her heart, it's clear that those issues are not all encompassing anymore. I've started blogging about her life. The ins and outs of her days. The jumping, jabbering and eating that takes up most of the 11 hours that she is awake. So as her first year comes to a close, I feel like it's time to close the chapter about the need for "hope" as we entered heart surgery, and open the chapter about what it means to be a whole hearted, "hopeful" girl. I'm just changing the title, people. In honor of living a whole hearted life.

And, in memory of all that this blog has meant to me, here is a 12-photo recap, month by month of our girl, our girl who had hope thanks to a little heart surgery.

Literally 24 hours before Abby was born, I was at my friend Emi's house taking a few last minute pictures. I had two weeks to go...

48 hours old... with an undiagnosed VSD...

1 month old, now having been diagnosed...

2 months old (first smile while waiting at the cardiologists office)...
3 months old...
4 months old (a handful of days before surgery)...
4.5 months old... the "new and improved" Abigail...
5 months old (she can breathe!)...
6 months (a really happy girl now that she is gaining weight!)...
7 months (Christmas)...
8 months (sitting up really, really well)...
9 months (first tooth)...
10 months...(working on that second tooth)
11 months (thinking about crawling)...

12 months...crawling!

12 Month Check Up

Abby is doing amazing at her 12 month check up. She is now in the 5% for weight and the 25% for head size and height. Waahoo! She successfully tripled her birth weight (which is what most kids with no health problems do) since last year (here's a reminder) :


She has two teeth, her hair is on the way to looking like Rapunzel, she's still in a size 2 shoe (!), she belly laughs when you say "bless you" after she sneezes, she's crawling everywhere and has no interest in standing. She still loves to jump. She loves to play with locks, doors, keys and shoe laces. She would be perfectly happy only eating chicken or turkey, blueberries, strawberries, prunes, goat cheese and avocado. She's currently on a veggie strike. She nurses twice a day and is on the way to being weaned. She now makes a fist, pulls it down toward her body and says, "humph!" She loves when her daddy tosses her around on the bed (otherwise known as "roughhousing", and in a few years we'll hopefully be asking her to stop doing it to a sibling). She still screams really loudly. Really. Loudly. She sleeps 11 plus hours a night, takes two naps a day and absolutely loves music. She loves to "pitch" things behind her and laughs when she coughs. She puts her head down on her dolly when she's ready for bed and...best of all, she loves (and I mean LOVES) the cards that she got for her birthday. She holds them, stares at them and flaps her arms when she sees one. Like mother like daughter, eh?


She also now loves bubbles : Hanging with the Davis boys (one older, one younger...) Climbing through her new tunnel (Thanks, Pema!) : And going to the Farmers Market every Thursday.

For all of these things and for every little thing, we are so thankful. "Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." - John Milton

New York

We actually all did it. We survived our four day trip to New York for our dear friend Jenny's wedding. It was a magical time for us to get away, seeing that it was also our 6th anniversary.

We returned to find a girl who was perfectly content while we were gone thanks to Grandma and Papa. In that four day period, she started :

- pointing with a finger extended instead of her whole hand

- making race car noises (nuuun nuuun)

- clapping many times (instead of just once)

- being very, very opinionated about which video she wants to watch

- waking up at 6:30 am instead of 7:30 (hmmmm. not good)

She took lots of walks with Grandma and Papa, went to a museum, attended the annual Bonita block party on Memorial Day (here's a picture from last year when she was mere days old on the day we brought her home - with not one but two grandparents overseeing the situation) :



ate sticky rice and chewed on chop sticks, smiled on command when she saw the flash light on the camera...


and played in the grass with flowers behind her ears.

We are still singing the Alicia Keys song "Empire State of Mind" and are so proud of Abby for letting us get away with zero stress while she had a great time at home.

Abigail Turns One

A day that at one point I feared might never arrive...Abby's first birthday. We were surrounded by friends and family, 36" pizza, root beer, red velvet and strawberry cupcakes and a candy bar with enough gummies to stop a three year olds heart. It was the best!





Abby's birthday started off as the windiest day Pasadena has seen all year. Thankfully, it made the balloons go crazy which was lots of fun!



Abby started off the day crawling around with some of her pals, Luke and Lily...



And decided that Lily's hat was really awesome.



So awesome, that she wanted to give Lily a kiss. What is it with Abby attacking (open mouth kissing!) other babies?







She got her own strawberry cupcake from Violets (quite a way to introduce dairy and sugar!) but was really much more interested in the bubbles.





And her friend Pema is much more interested in Grant.



And by the end, she was done. She slept 13 hours that night.




Thank you to the friends and family who made Abigail's birthday so special. We are now in sugar comas, recovering.

Smoke & Mirrors

While I scurry around, trying to get things done for Abigail's first birthday, she's scurrying around, too. While I have my back turned, here are some of her favorite past times.

1. Putting all of her little socks in a bag, shaking it with all her might and then taking them out one by one. It's a real red letter day if I let her shake (to the music) and suck on her teething tablets bottle. (i know... not the best idea).





2. Pulling as many tights and pants out of this bin as she can as well as pull all of the books off the shelf.





3. Escape around the corner into my bedroom. Then attack my closet. And close the door and disappear behind it.





4. The mirror is behind the door. Looking at herself followed by kissing herself and then a "who, me?" look is a new favorite.